Friday, 16 September 2011

The Double Words

We are celebrating Malaysia Day while those, especially in Kuala Lumpur, continue to organise open houses in celebrating Aidil Fitri. So, technically, we are again having a double celebration. Not really a surprise given Malaysians consist of people with diverse ethnicity and religion.

Another "double" that we may face frequently in our lives is doublespeak. According to Dictionary.Com, doublespeak is a noun which means "evasive,ambiguouslanguagethatisintendedtodeceiveor confuse". People who are so desperate to be popular may choose this method to say something which many people want to hear but do something else later. That is my impression about double speak.

There are many people out there who need to be popular but are so hopeless that they could not be so on their own merit. So, using doublespeak could be very tempting, particularly if they have ways and means to amplify their messages to wider audience. Innocent and ignorant people may buy this kind of trick. Some, although cautious that they are being conned, choose to play along as they may have personal stake in the popularity of the doublespeaker.

Off course, later, when people realised that they have been double-crossed, they would be very upset and beginning to have double-vision. Unfortunately, double speakers have the skill to manage such situations, more double-speaking and those upset people would be happy and start clapping and smiling again. Slowly but surely, the whole society would move towards unpleasant circumstances but being addicted to soothing words keep them in-check.

This vicious cycle will go on and on as many people, somehow, are able to endure the consequences of living in an environment where double-speakers are cherished and glorified. Some may decide to have enough of having this sort of nonsense would emigrate to different places with the hope of having less double-speaking and having more real life based on their merits and hard work. This is what we refer to as "brain-drain", another term coined to sound complicated and camouflage the simple meaning of the term, again.